Learn to Crochet Tunisian Style: Tools

Flat or round, for each method a specific hook
There are three types of needles for Tunisian crochet. Each needle has its own purpose.

The most well known hook is the long thin needle with a knob stopper at the end (but for bigger sizes they are available without knobs). This particular type of needle is used for crochet flat objects. You pick up stitches along a row and you work them off to finish your row.

Tunisian needles come in various sizes from 2.5 mm to 25 mm and are made from various materials. The thinner ones (up to about 8 mm) are made of aluminium to keep them lightweight. If you need an ever bigger size, most hooks are made of either plastic or wood.

The second type of needle is a long needle with a flexible piece and a stopper at the end. With this type of needle there are two options: either to make an afghan in which you have a lot of stitches to work with, or a cilinder/work-in-the-round type of project.
The extender is very useful when making an afghan because if you have a lot of stitches your work will become very very heavy once the afghan starts growing. Or if you want to make a scarf lengthwise and extender will be a godsend.
For working in the round an extender means you can work all of your stitches of a particular row because you have a flexible part instead of a hook that doesn't bend or go around a corner!

The third type of needle is a shorter needle with a hook on each end which are facing both in opposite directions. This needle can be used for crocheting in the round or using different colours.

For this particular course I used two sizes for Tunisian hooks: 6.0 mm and 11.5 mm for both long hooks with a stopper and a double ended hook. If you are familiar with my patterns and tutorials you know I have a soft spot for "any yarn, any gauge" patterns, so all of my patterns in this course can be completely customized if you have different sizes available.

Tunisian hooks aren't as widely available as normal crochet hooks but you can find them on Ebay, Amazon and Etsy.

One useful tip: there are Tunisian hooks that can be attached to Denise Interchangeable needles but here in Europe we have Addi Interchangeable (see picture): Addi has a crochet hook set that can be used with an Addi Click set. I love it, but I do know Skacell puts ginormous import prices on Addi....

This Friday we are really going to start.

One last word about yarn: I am using cotton and acrylic yarn for all of my patterns in this course. In DK weight and worsted weight. I am not going to use much (except for 1 pattern) so you can dig into your stash if you want to.

See you in in a few days for the first real lesson (Friday!)! All the lessons will be here!